GEOLGY 307 Chapter Notes - Chapter 15: Carpometacarpus, Ecological Collapse, Rudists
Document Summary
One explanation links the extinction of dinosaurs to the impact of a comet or meteorite that exploded upon striking the earth 65 million years ago. Second explanation sees dinosaurs extinction as the outgrowth of changes in topography, climate, vegetation, and/or animal life at the end of the cretaceous that resulted in the ecological collapse of the dinosaurs. Terminal cretaceous extinction or the extinction at the cretaceous-tertiary boundary. Only one of several major extinctions in the history of life. Not the largest extinction that occurred at the end of the permian 250 mya. Atleast 15% of the families of shelled marine vertebrates became extinct in the sea during the terminal cretaceous extinction. Ammonoid cephalopods, relatives of living octopuses and squids which suffered which suffered total extinction. Clams and snails is suffered significant losses including the total extinction of the rudist,reef-building clams, and the inoceramids, thin-shelled, plate like clams; and the marine reptiles the mosasaurs and long-necked plesiosaurs.
